Sidney Crosby is a diver, a whiner, and an all-around baby. CROS-BY SUCKS, is what I hear from fellow hockey fans. And since those are the prevailing notions, then I guess we gotta blindly accept them as fact. Hell, those fans do.

So it’s nice to see a guy like ESPN’s John Buccigross put those fans in their place. In his latest mailbag, the Pittsburgh-born Bucci takes aim at the horribly-misinformed Crosby-bashers:

“I watch parts of just about every NHL game. I don’t watch “Lost” or “Dancing with the Stars” or “Idol.” I watch NHL hockey every night I’m home. These are my observations:

1. Crosby rarely whines. In fact, he is one of the more subdued players in the NHL. That is a fact. If you believe otherwise, you haven’t seen a large sample of his games this season.

2. To call him overrated is as implausibly mind-boggling as calling Lady Gaga underrated. He wins faceoffs, he scores goals, he is the best passer in the NHL, he backchecks, he’s completely committed to his craft, he carries his franchise’s media load and has since he was 18. No one has had more asked of him over the past five years than Crosby.

I have a difficult time detesting anything in life except Michael Bolton covering Otis Redding songs. That’s it.”

THIS! THISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHIS!

The one thing I didn’t understand was the Lady Gaga reference. The only thing I really know about her is one of my coworkers blasts one of her songs at work almost every day to the point where I can hear it at my desk through his earbuds. I have no idea if we should call her overrated or underrated, so I’ll just glaze over that part and praise Bucci for putting in to words exactly how Crosby should be summed up.

Major love to Bucci for this. Perhaps it’ll level out some of the Sid haters out there. Wait…do I really believe that?